Just over a minute into this film of Ken Fern (badly in need of digital remastering!) he talks about the monkey puzzle tree, Araucaria araucana, and about how it has the potential to be one of the most productive nut trees in our climate. If they had been planted in any number when that discovery had been made then we would be awash with nuts by now – but unfortunately they weren’t. Although they are sometimes grown as ornamental trees, they aren’t often grown as productive trees – and there are a couple of reasons why that is so. The first is that they are slow growing – this one is about 8 years old, according to its label:


Monkey puzzle 3
Araucaria araucana, the monkey puzzle tree

It will be another couple of decades before it is reliably producing nuts. The second reason is that plants are either male or female, and you need both for nut production, and it’s impossible to sex the plants while they’re young. So if you want monkey puzzle nuts you need to grow several trees (as yet, I don’t know how many – do you?) to guarantee a harvest, even though one male tree can usually pollinate several local females.

On the plus side, as well as producing tasty nuts, the trees don’t cast too much shade – although they will eventually grow very tall:


Canopy

And the ones at my local arboretum appear to be taking very good care of the local ladybird population:


Safe

I would dearly love some little monkey puzzles of my own, to give me a head start on the forest garden I hope to have room for once we move – they’re definitely on my wish list.

Resources:
Wikipedia
PFAF
How to germinate monkey puzzle trees
Agroforestry Rsearch Trust (supplier)
Nicky’s Nursery (supplier)